On May 28, 1925, The REPUBLICAN JOURNAL, Belfast’s weekly newspaper,
carried under the above headline the following brief item:

“That the Maine Central Railroad is contemplating abandoning
the Belfast-Burnham branch to its owners, as was reported in a Portland
paper last week, was proven absolutely false today, when at The Journal's
request Mayor O. E. Frost of this city got in touch with President McDonald
of the Maine Central.

“In response to Mr. Frost's question Mr. McDonald stated that no
such action was even under consideration. He said that if the time should
ever come when the Maine Central desires to make a change with respect
to the Belfast Branch, the officers of the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad
Company, which owns the branch, would be notified
personally and not through the medium of the daily press and that dealings
would be made with them direct, in a business like manner as is customary
in all commercial transactions.”

However Mr. McDonald’s denials that “no such action was even under consideration”
soon proved to be just empty words. Less than a week later McDonald sent
Mayor Frost -- who was also the B&ML’s unpaid President -- an accounting
showing a net loss to the MEC on their Belfast Branch operations of $113,230
for the year 1924. Less than a month later the end of the MEC Belfast Branch
was official -- on June 30th McDonald notified the B&ML that the
MEC would end its lease effective December 31, 1925.